Appliance Repair Tool of the Day: VersaPak Cordless Screwdriver

When you’ve turned as many screws as ol’ Samurai, you get pretty excited about cordless screwdrivers. A good cordless screwdriver can really speed up the job, eliminating some of the drudgery and saving you real time so you can go back to doing important things, like drinking beer.

What distinguishes a “good” cordless driver from a mediocre or sucky one? Some key qualifications include:

low cost

light weight

batteries recharge quickly

enough torque to get the job done

adjustable torque

Oh, sure, you could buy one o’ them fancy, high-dollah DEwalt drivers. But why spend all the money for a tool that you’ll probably only use once in a while when this one will do the job just as well for a fifth of the cost?

I’ve used a variation of this Black and Decker cordless driver for almost ten years now. They don’t even make the one I use anymore, guess they replaced it with this new fancy-schmancy one that you can fold into a driver gun.

The adjustable torque is an essential feature to have when working with metal screws in cheap plastic parts, which describes most appliance assemblies out there. And the adjustable torque means you’ll never again be accused of having a screw loose.

Here’s the battery you’ll need for this driver. Don’t bother with the VersaPak silver batteries. Yeah, they’re less expensive but you don’t even get what you pay for because they don’t last nearly as long as the gold batteries. Learned that the hard way. In rehab.

I’ve recycled lots of the silver VersaPak batteries because they’d no longer hold a charge. OTOH, I’ve been using the gold VersaPak batteries exclusively for over five years now and have yet to recycle a single one.

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